Creative taxonomy — it's what happens when scientists discover an as-yet unnamed species and find some way to connect it to a person, place, or thing. Sometimes that person/place/thing is famous. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes the connections between the two make perfect sense. Other times the connections are more tenuous. So when we heard the news that a prehistoric lizard had recently been named after President Barack Obama (scientific name: Obamadon gracilis), we were obviously keen to find out the reasoning for it.

It is a small polyglyphanodontian distinguished by tall, slender teeth with large central cusps separated from small accessory cusps by lingual grooves. The genus name refers to Barack Hussein Obama and odon (tooth in Greek), in reference to the tall, straight teeth, and the manner in which Mr Obama has acted as a role model of good oral hygiene for the world.

Longrich, who led the study, went on to clarify: "No one should impute any political significance to the decision to name the extinct lizard after the recently re-elected U.S. president. We're just having fun with taxonomy."

In the concept art pictured up top, the carnivorous lizard Palaeosaniwa stalks a pair of hatchling Edmontosaurus as the lizard Obamadon looks on. Created by the very talented Carl Buell; fossil dentary via Longrich et al.